Narendra Modi’s new team of ministers

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The Indian government on Tuesday announced its list of cabinet ministers along with their portfolios, a day after Narendra Modi was sworn in as the new prime minister.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies won a landslide victory in a mammoth general election, grabbing 336 of the 543 seats and ending the Congress-led government’s decade-long rule.

Besides Modi, 45 other members were inducted into the new council of ministers, a third smaller than the previous government. Modi himself would look after atomic energy, space, personnel and any ministry not allocated to a cabinet colleague.

Modi announced on Sunday that a smaller cabinet was a move to a more centralised system of governing, aimed at breaking bottlenecks widely blamed for dragging down India’s economic growth.

Arun Jaitley, a former commerce and law minister, takes charge of finance, corporate affairs and defence, although he said the defence ministry charge is temporary. Rajnath Singh is India’s new home minister.

(Additional reporting by Amit Ganguly, editing by David Lalmalsawma; You can follow Aditya on Twitter @adityayk, Amit @leosamit and David @davidlms25)

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Aditya is part of the India politics, economy and general news team at the Reuters bureau in New Delhi. After joining Reuters in July 2008, Aditya spent nearly six years managing content and writing for the Reuters.com India edition. During 2013-14, he was closely involved in developing the website's India Insight platform, writing on topics ranging from business and politics to stocks and mutual funds. Follow him on Twitter @adityakalra